Nonprescription Products for Weight Loss

Topic Overview

Many nonprescription products for weight loss are available at
drugstores and supermarkets and over the Internet. Many of these have never
been proved effective. And those that are effective often come with warnings.
For example, many diet pills promote water loss from the body and may lead to
dehydration or loss of essential minerals.

Nonprescription appetite suppressants often work by making you less
hungry.

Appetite suppressants are
only intended for use for a few weeks. But control of
obesity is a lifelong activity. It is costly and possibly dangerous to depend
on the use of these medicines to control your weight for long periods of time.
If you are going to use these drugs to help you lose weight, be sure you also
make healthy changes to your diet and get regular exercise.

Tell your doctor about any other prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, herbs, and supplements you are taking. These medicines could affect other health conditions such as type 2 diabetes or change your blood pressure or cholesterol or both.

Some people use water-loss pills (diuretics,
such as Aqua-Ban) to lose weight. But these pills only get rid of water
and do not reduce the amount of fat in your body. Using water-loss pills this
way is not recommended and can be dangerous.

A nonprescription-strength form of the drug orlistat is available, sold as Alli. It blocks the body from absorbing some of the fat from foods you eat. As with all over-the-counter medicine, be sure to follow the directions on the medication label.

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How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.